Evil Geek Book Report – Vengeance of Moon Knight Vol. 1 Shock And Awe

Awhile I ago I had expressed interest in Moon Knight and asked for some recommendations. Arthur Harkness was kind enough to oblige by lending me the first six issues of the 2009 series Vengeance of Moon Knight by Gregg Hurwitz and art by Jerome Opena.

I really wanted to like it and it wasn’t bad per say…just “slight” more than anything. As the series picks up our vigilante title hero (powered by the Egyptian God Koshnu) returns from Mexico after faking his death in the previous series. He picks up where he left off but everyone is shocked that his violent tendencies have seemingly been subdued. Criminals are stopped and then wrapped up nicely to wait for the cops ala Spider-Man, instead of being maimed or killed. Moon Knight’s former alter ego (or if you’d like one of his multiple personalities) Marc Spector is now only Jack Lockely (another of his multiple personalities) and he has even given up the booze. It’s clear that he does really want to change for the better, but no matter how hard he tries his past is always lurking around the corner.

That’s the main driving force of this series. Can a former cold blooded mercenary turned vigilante bat shit hero reform and play by the rules? (This very similar theme is explored much better in the recent Scarlet Spider series). Everyone seems to doubt him…and rightly so. Criminal mastermind, Norman Osborne certainly does and wants to keep him from causing trouble for his ventures. He hires the mystic, The Hood to resurrect Moon Knight’s arch nemesis Bushman. You see, Bushman was formerly Moon Knight’s alter ego, Marc Spector’s employer when he was a mercenary. They had a falling out and Bushman left Spector for dead in the desert. Spector agonizingly crawled for hours until he collapsed inside a pyramid and awoke to find he was given powers by the statue of the God Koshnu. Apparently, a few years back Moon Knight cut off Bushman’s face and killed him during a confrontation. That particular act of brutality helped to deteriorate his already declining mental stability. Osborne figures seeing Bushman alive will put Moon Knight right over the edge.

Guess what? It doesn’t. (oh um…Spoiler Alert for the previous sentence, I guess. Like you really care?) Moon Knight beats up on Bushman for a bit and then leaves him for the police, which mind fucks Bushman more knowing that Moon Knight didn’t kill him when he had the chance. Kind of like Bullseye and Daredevil during the Frank Miller run.

Prior to that, Bushman went to the insane asylum with a character named the Scarecrow and lobotomized a bunch of inmates to become his unholy army. Now I know that Batman comparisons have dogged Moon Knight since day 1 but I’m pretty positive this is the exact script to a Batman story.

Here’s the thing, I still like Moon Knight as a character. I’m not sold on the comic books though. It was interesting enough I guess, but it just felt something pivotal was missing. It all seemed so painfully mediocre. One of the other things that really bothered me was that a lot of things and people were not explained at all. Which I understand the previous series ended only a few months prior to this one beginning but with any number 1 issue you have to expect there will be some new readers and a little background and/or back pedaling might be required. I will however, praise the covers of the 6 issues by Leinel Francis Yu. They all looked fantastic.

That’s all for this time nerds!

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